Pop star needs push-start after court visit

6:20pm Monday 3rd March 2008

EAST 17 singer Brian Harvey was banned from driving for six months after being found guilty of going nearly double the speed limit.

And as he went to leave court, Harvey requested the help of reporters to help push-start his car, which was being driven by a friend, as the battery had gone flat during the course of the hearing.

The 33-year-old, pictured, was pulled over by police on the M4 between Chippenham and Swindon in Wiltshire at 2am on May 24 last year.

The officers told Chippenham Magistrates' Court how his car shot past them while they were doing 68mph.

They said they reached speeds of 138mph catching Harvey up to pull him over.

Harvey had denied an offence of speeding. Representing himself at yesterday's trial, he claimed the officers saw another car speed past them but lost it in the chase and stopped the wrong car.

He said he was driving a blue Volkswagen Golf and that police noted down the offending vehicle on official documents as an Audi.

Harvey told the magistrates: "I was driving on the motorway that evening but the car the officers saw speeding was not mine."

He also claimed the officers' eyesight was defective and that they were lying.

However, the court was told the two officers who stopped him found the number plate on Harvey's VW was registered at the time to an Indian woman who drives an Audi, which is where the confusion arose.

Prosecutor Tim Hammick said it was definitely Harvey at the wheel of the speeding car - and the magistrates agreed.

Chief magistrate Michael Sutton imposed a 180-day driving ban, a £150 fine and ordered Harvey to pay court costs of £240.

Harvey, speaking outside court, said: "The magistrates were very lenient and I appreciate that."